


Boredom

by Cuda (Scylla), Scylla



Category: Fast and the Furious (2001 2003 2006 2009)
Genre: Billy Joel - Freeform, Friendship, Gen, Slice of Life, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-26
Updated: 2009-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-05 07:06:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scylla/pseuds/Cuda, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scylla/pseuds/Scylla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Still undercover with Dominic Toretto's team of street racers, young Detective Brian O'Connor discovers that he has a lot to learn about what it means to be undercover. Particularly that when the work isn't dangerous, it's boring as hell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boredom

Things got boring around the Toretto household five days out of the week. Brian wasn't sure what he'd expected, but he was pretty sure it wasn't Sunday through Thursday digging around under the hood all afternoon. Everybody had their job, everybody was doing it. He'd come on the place tense, looking over his shoulder, expecting something bad to happen, _hoping_ something bad would happen. And for days on end, nothing did.

Brian didn't know what to make of it. He was a cop and he'd been in trouble with the law before he became a cop, and his sense of reality warned him that life wasn't like the movies even for convicts and rebels, but the part of him that occasionally slid into fantasy was disappointed.

They were playing _music_ on the goddamned _radio_ in the garage! Not even fast stuff. They had it tuned to one of the ubiquitous classic rock stations. Billy Joel bounced around the open concrete space with the jarring explosiveness of a Tommy Gun: "_If he can't drive with a broken BACK-ACK-ACK-ACK-ACK-ACK..._"

Brian was good at rolling with whatever. Good at saying 'no big deal' and focusing on what he had to do whether it was really a big deal or not. It was why he excelled at his job. But really, _damn_, everyone was just _working_ in here to _Billy fucking Joel_.

Crouched in a cradle of naked steel chassis, Dom appeared oblivious. White-pink sparks danced over the edge of the chassis and reflected in the dark panel of his welding mask as he cut a custom fitting for a bundle of new electrical cords. A circle of hot metal hit the floor with a _kriiing_ at Brian's approach, and Dom twisted off the cutting torch. He flipped up his mask and glanced at Brian, eyebrows lifted. "What, you never used a torch before?"

"_Yeah_, I use a torch," Brian retorted, suddenly defensive. A little too defensive, he reminded himself, don't try so hard. But man, he could have beaten Dom, he beat everybody else and Dom gave him this job and he was _doing it great_ but still they (mostly Dom) treated him like he was some stupid fuck about cars--

"Then _get a mask,_" Dom waved at the workbench.

Chagrined, Brian followed the impatient sweep of his arm to the extra mask and a pair of gloves. Dom climbed over the fender when Brian returned and gestured for him to take the spot. "Finish up. We got a whole new electrical harness and course the new headlights don't fit. I chalked out the holes, just cut 'em." He handed Brian the torch, rolled his shoulders and stepped back, leaning on the frame near the driver's side window. Going to watch him do it. Brian's jaw pulsed, but he turned the torch on and got to work.

At least the hiss and roar of the work drowned out the music.


End file.
